The Indian Railways is in the process of achieving financial closure for its proposed Rs 30,000-crore dedicated freight corridor. It will seek the World Bank assistance for the Eastern corridor from Son Nagar to Tandarikalan, about 1190 km, which is claimed to be most important route for freight movement.
The dedicated freight corridor project was conceptualised for reducing the unit cost of transportation by speeding up freight train operations and achieving higher productivity through better utilisation of railway assets, reduction in inventory costs and achieving greater customer satisfaction.
Announcing this during the sidelines of a national seminar on ?Recent advances and future trends in design and construction of bridges?, Satish K Vij, member (engineering), Railway Board said the railways will pump in short-term investment of Rs 3,300 crore in the project and the rest will be through borrowings. As such an SPV has already been formalised for this project, he said.
Besides, the Japan Bank of International Corporation (JBIC) has expressed keenness to invest Rs 12,000 crore and is currently examining the Western corridor from Dadri to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, which is about 1483 km. The railways is hopeful of tying up the required funds in the next nine months, he said adding that the entire project is expected to be completed in the next seven years.
According to Vij, the railways had already formed a core team that would work closely with consulting firms in executing the 3,000-km double line project. It has received about 40 applications from across the world, including construction and bridge design companies, which have evinced interest to participate in the project and would see the commencement of physical activity during the current year. This marks a great revival in rail construction, he said.
?We have obtained the necessary approvals that will enable us to acquire land much faster. The construction work on the project, bridges to start with, will begin during this year. We expect the freight corridor to be completely ready in seven years from now and the first train could move through this much before that,? Vij added.
According to him, the Indian Railways will spend Rs 12,000 crore on gauge conversion and doubling of rail lines to further strengthen the Golden Quadrilateral project that links all the four metropolitan cities in the country during this year. Till last year, we used to doubling across 300 km and now this year, it would be 1,000 km, he said.